Hinduism – polytheistic or monotheistic?

Hinduism has a huge number of gods: Shiva, Vishnu, Ganesha, Kali, and well, many more. The belief in several gods is called polytheism. And yes, that’s how it is for many hindus - they are polytheists. Yet despite all these gods, many hindus consider that they believe in only one god, in other words, that they are monotheists. How does this fit together?

To sort this out, we need to start with some important things in Hinduism: Rebirth - reincarnation, and the ideas about what is being reincarnated. Hindus believe that after death you are born anew in another body. But it’s not the personality being born again, it’s the soul. So every person has their own individual soul. This individual soul is called Atman.

But there is also a larger world soul: Brahman. Imagine a big ocean. And look at one of the waves in that ocean. The wave is definitely one distinct part, but it is just as much ocean as the wave next to it. The waves are the ocean.

This is a very common metaphor for Brahman and Atman. Brahman is the ocean. And Atman is one wave in the ocean. But at the same time, the waves are the ocean, and the Atman is Brahman. The Atman and Brahman are one.

Brahman is really all that exists. And since Brahman is so big, and includes everything - even gods and goddesses - it’s possible to interpret this as meaning there is only one god: Brahman. Aha yes, if there is only one god, well then you can say that Hinduism is monotheistic. But hold on! Says another group of hindus: “We are not monotheists, because we don’t believe in a god.” Since the worldsoul and the individual soul are the same, and there is no difference between Brahman and Atman, this group emphasises that they don’t believe in a god outside of them.

There is no separation into someone who is believing in something, and the something that the person is believing in. Everything is one. This thing about everything being one, is sometimes called monism. And there is one Hindu school that is more explicitly monistic than others: Advaita Vedanta or just Advaita. Advaita means not two.

So you can say that Hinduism is polytheistic, monotheistic, or monistic. It depends on how the practitioner of the religion understands it.